THE EASE & JOY OF MORNINGS (December 2018)

Join Kozan for “Ease and Joy of Mornings,” December 16—a quiet morning designed to introduce you to the art of zazen. It is an ideal entryway for beginners and even intermediate or long-time meditators who want a refresher course on this “dharma gate of joy and ease” as described by Zen Master, Dogen-Zenji.

Talks by The Wisdom & Time Faculty

Roshi leads a meditation on mindfulness of the body and lovingkindness, goes through the stages of a rite of passage, and talks about leading with our hearts and not our roles in the world. Mary Catherine talks about “liminality,” that stage between falling apart and coming back together, and suggests that our civilization as a whole is at such a place right now. David talks about our legacies as human beings, making observations about the importance of living from a place that is aligned with our deepest priorities and convictions, ending with a quote by Gandhi. Al talks about giving back and the fears that come along with letting go of what we think we have, noting that with age comes a lessening of that fear. Malka talks about activism, about the importance of good deeds, about empathy and about the importance and beauty of transparency.

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Roshi Joan leads a meditation on mindfulness of and appreciation for the body, and offers a view of four vectors of human development, emphasizing the importance of embodiment in affecting positive change in the world. Jane continues this examination of embodiment, noting some reasons why people may become “disembodied” at various points in their lives. She then leads a meditation inspired by Mary Catherine’s “ball of energy” game in which we imagine a ball of energy moving around our body, then closes by talking about how “interoception,” or one’s ability to look and feel inside one’s body, helps to engender both self-empathy and empathy for others.

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Mary Catherine leads a session on improvisation, offering that we are “artists of our own lives.” She leads some of the participants in an improvisation game called “the ball of energy.” After the game, the participants note what they felt and noticed during their participation. Mary Catherine concludes with some notes about seeing life as an improvisational art and what we stand to learn by practicing improvisation.

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Malka opens by offering reflections on and personal experiences pertinent to Mary Catherine’s addition of “Adulthood II” within the context of Erikson’s model, then offers a model of aging as seen in the Jewish tradition. Roshi then introduces Jane Fonda. Jane offers her own view of this “second adulthood” which she calls “The Third Act,” talking about her experiences of loss and existing in a space of not-knowing and openness which she describes, in the words of Fritz Perl, “The Fertile Void.” The session closes with Q&A.

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David opens with a partner meditation in which one person holds the other’s hand, meditating on the hand’s nature and capabilities as if it were a completely foreign object. In a talk entitled “Wisdom, Neuroscience and Lifespan Development,” Al Kaszniak offers some functional definitions of wisdom, noting that there is not yet a “neuroscience of wisdom” but rather various fields of study that are exploring the components and constituents of wisdom. Al includes ample fMRI data in this examination, drawing connections between fields of mental and physical experience and their respective locations of activity in the brain. He closes with some notes on the process of aging as it relates to the development of emotional homeostasis and context sensitivity and increased awareness and blending of emotions.

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Roshi opens by offering a view of maturation as seen by the Lacandon people of Mexico and speaks to the phenomenon of prolonged childhood in America. Mary Catherine leads an examination of Eric Erikson’s view of development, adding “Adulthood II” between “Adulthood I” and “Old Age,” noting that a large part of “Adulthood II” is refiguring how one relates to the world, to people, and to work. She then speaks to the American notion of “independence,” offering that shifting to the model of “interdependence” creates more cohesion and harmony in society.

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The session begins with small group discussions around one of the questions posed the night before by Mary Catherine, after which the participants share some of the salient points raised in those groups. After a break, Mary Catherine explores in more depth the phenomenon of “Adulthood II,” noting that this is a time to deepen connections, form alliances and increase communication across generational lines. Malka offers a vision of development as seen in the Jewish tradition, David leads a guided meditation and offers the three models of aging as seen by American culture and adds a fourth of his own.

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The session begins with small group discussions around one of the questions posed the night before by Mary Catherine, after which the participants share some of the salient points raised in those groups. After a break, Mary Catherine explores in more depth the phenomenon of “Adulthood II,” noting that this is a time to deepen connections, form alliances and increase communication across generational lines. Malka offers a vision of development as seen in the Jewish tradition, David leads a guided meditation and offers the three models of aging as seen by American culture and adds a fourth of his own.

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Roshi introduces Mary Catherine and the panel and explains the genesis of the retreat. Mary Catherine starts the discussion by stating the fact that in the last 100 years the average life expectancy has gone from 47 to 77, and that these 30 added years are not added at the end of life but somewhere in the middle (Adulthood II), adding some initial commentary about what this means in terms of how we live our lives. David, Malka, Roshi and Al comment, and Mary Catherine closes by posing two questions for further thought.

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